1504 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CUI.TUKK. 



Dec, 



MORE ABOUT THE STIXGLESS BEES. 

 A Few Siilient Facts ahcint Tlii'iii. 



BY W. K. MOKKISON. 



Let me add a word or two about the sting- 

 less bee, Mr, Green has done a good job 

 with the means at his disposal, l)ut it wdl be 

 a long time before we arrive at a working 

 knowledge of even one species, let alone fif- 

 ty. Here let me digress a little to give a lit- 

 tle historical matter. 



My first knowledge of stingless bees was 

 obtained when only a child, in reading Capt. 

 Hall's Travels in ,^outh America and Sted- 

 man's Travels in Surinam, and since that 

 time I have never ceased to take a lively in- 

 terest in these bees. Years ago I examined 

 the libraries of Congress, the Astor hljrary, 

 the I>eDox library, the library of Columbia 

 (College, of the Brooklyn Institute, of Ameri- 

 can Museum of Natural History, and other 

 good libraries, for references to these bees, 

 hut got very little information for my trouble. 

 I also consulted eminent entomologists, 

 American and English, also to little purpose. 

 The onlv real assistance I ever got was from 

 the goAernment of Venezuela, more iiarticu- 



larly N. Bolet Peraza, its minister, and Ji 

 Palacio, the president of the republic at the 

 time. 



your warning as to the true place of Mtli- 

 pona in its biological classification is timelv" 

 but here let me add a further warning: The 

 average bee-beeper is acquainted with' oulv 

 two or three species of Ijees— hive bees, biun" 

 ble bees, etc. ; l)ut so far as I am able to haz- 

 ard a guess I should say South America htu 

 fifty species of Melipona alone, and there 

 may lie as many of Trigona and the honey- 

 gathering wasps. The latter are not wasps 

 at all, in my opinion. They seem very fond 

 of the nectar of coffee-flowers, whereas'wasps 

 are flesh-eaters. As a matter of fact, very 

 little is known with reference to the hees of 

 South America, Nearly all we know is from 

 men who never made a study of bees, or 

 to whom the whole subject was academic. 

 It will, therefore, be seen that we have to be- 

 gin at the beginning, and we bee-keepei-s 

 will have to acquire the required knowledge 

 ourselves by our own unaided efforts. Here 

 let me state some salient facts about these 

 bees, which I think will stand the test of 

 time; and I speak only of the species illus- 

 trated ill Gleanings. 



^ ^ V. 



fft^JO^. 



DKLEGATES OF THE ONTAKIO BEE-KEEPEU 



lilUli 



(iLEAXIXG.S IN BEE CULTURE. 



1, They will withstand as much cold ,as Apis 

 mt-ilifi'-t'-'O'O^^ *•'« natives of the tropics). 



•). 'They are stingless, and practically harm- 

 less as a 'dove. 



3, They are proof against moths, 



4, They are proof against ants. 



5, They build in very thick hollow trees. 

 Possibly the last fact is the most important, 



,is it enables them to resist cold weather, A 

 iiuuiber of the meliponas build their nest all 

 out of doors, their only protection being a 

 thin papery material to shed the rain. The 

 latter I have seen with nests as large as a 

 llour-barrel, and much the same shape. 

 However, they will be more valuable south 

 than north, though the sequel may turn out 

 otherwise, I think my stingless "Ijees have 

 far more "sense" than the others, and are 

 certainly far more wary. For example, they 

 work on deep flowers ' ' head out, " hence it is 

 almost impossible to catch them on a flower. 

 Nothing irritates them so much as to catch 

 one entering the hive. Evidently they hear 

 her cries inside; for, like a flash, the others 

 lly out to rescue their comrade, and in the 

 case of a lizard they bite it around the eyes 

 to make it let go. 

 In some respects they are learning. In 



South America they maintain a vigilant 

 watch at the entrance, just as the West India 

 bees do; but, not haying been teased by their 

 enemies for some time, they have lately re- 

 laxed their watchfulness, and for hours at a 

 time no sentinel can be seen at the entrance. 



They make beeswax, apparently in all re- 

 spects the same as their friends the Apis. 

 They are apt to use propolis, however, to 

 help out on the wax. In addition they make 

 paper and cement. The honey crop will de- 

 pend very largely on the kind of hive that 

 may be invented' for them, and here is the 

 great problem around which revolves the 

 fate of these bees. I think our enterprising 

 expert queen-breeders will be able to work 

 out a system of bee-keeping suited to these 

 bees; but until this is done it is useless to 

 speculate on the matter. 



I am far from thinking this is the only 

 species of Melipo?m capable of domestication, 

 and probably some of the Tngona can be 

 domesticated, more particularly the species 

 making its home on the prairies of Venezue- 

 la and Colombia. It has a very bad temper, 

 however, quite as bad as Cyprians are said 

 to have. 



The honey-gathering wasp, so called, I'e- 



?i^ ^^%:^ 



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«, 9, 1906.— See Canadian Notes, p. 1493. 



